Damn this game.

It’s one thing when it breaks your heart. (Too soon, Auburn, Tennessee? Again, Florida?) Or banking account (Texas A&M).

It’s another thing entirely it breaks your body.

Jordan Travis’ injury Saturday created Playoff chaos in the worst possible way.

Teams will benefit because of the worst possible outcome.

His injury and the ripple effects heard from coast to coast are just some of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 12 in and around the SEC.

10. Damn, damn, damn …

The most impactful play of FSU’s season — heck, of the college football season — will be the tackle that ended Travis’ college career — and very likely FSU’s chance at making the Playoff.

If you haven’t seen the video, consider yourself fortunate.

It’s terrible, but it wasn’t dirty. It was just an unfortunate football play.

But Jordan is so critical to everything FSU does that his absence just blew the door wide open for the most contentious Playoff debate ever. (Oh, boy, won’t that be fun.)

And to think we entered Week 12 pointing to 3 or 4 games and expecting an upset to alter the Playoff landscape. Instead, the top 10 teams won.

Rather than focusing on whether Washington’s gutty road win at No. 11 Oregon State was good enough to jump FSU at No. 4, one tackle has changed the entire conversation about the championship race.

10b. The biggest benefactor? Texas …

The top 6 teams in the latest Playoff poll all have a direct path to the Final Four. They all control their fate. Win, and in. No. 8 Alabama does, too, because it still has a chance to knock off No. 1 Georgia in the SEC title game.

Washington and Oregon are at No. 5 and 6, respectively, with a chance to lock down their Playoff spot in the Pac-12 title game.

No matter how many times you crunched the scenarios, No. 7 Texas seemed to get the short end. Which is crazy considering the Longhorns have the best win this season — a double-digit victory at Alabama.

FSU was one of the teams in Texas’ way, seemingly on auto-pilot to a ACC title, 13-0 season and Playoff spot.

Not anymore.

A healthy, 12-1, Big 12 champion Texas must now be considered a Playoff lock.

9. Here’s the thing with Billy Napier …

I get all the positives, beginning with the fact that he seems like a high-character molder of men. That counts for something.

But I always come back to this: Are you winning because of your coach, or in spite of him?

Florida absolutely should have beaten Mizzou on Saturday night. They didn’t because of many of the same reasons they’ve lost far too many games under Napier.

From a schematic standpoint, what advantage does he provide the Gators?

From an in-game adjustment standpoint, what advantage does he provide the Gators?

I understand the desire for stability.

And it took Kirby Smart a good solid 2 years to figure out, you know, exactly how to coach a game. Making game-saving adjustments in 30 seconds is an art form.

Florida, once again, was in position to pull off an improbable win, a huge win, on the road, against a top-10 team.

But let’s be honest: In the final minutes, how did you feel? Did you sense doom, knowing that somehow, some way, the Gators would find a way to lose?

Or were you supremely confident in Napier’s ability to find the right answer at the right time.

Your answer to that question represents your thoughts on Napier being the coach in 2024 and beyond.

Elite coaches aren’t losing that game.

8. New rule: No more talking about Tennessee as a legit threat …

Until they actually beat Georgia.

Sorry, that’s too optimistic.

How about: Until they come within 10 points of Georgia?

Kirby Smart’s Dawgs beat the Vols for the 7th consecutive time Saturday — and just like the previous 6, it wasn’t remotely close.

Georgia looks like the most complete team in the country. But, against that schedule, which contender wouldn’t?

Carson Beck’s uniform has stayed so clean this year that you could legitimately question whether one of his “game-used” uniforms was actually used in a game.

7. Michigan can’t beat Ohio State with this JJ McCarthy

I’m on the Michigan bandwagon. I believe they’re better than OSU, but the past couple of weeks, the Wolverines have taken the ball out of QB JJ McCarthy’s hands.

It’s worked in the sense the Wolverines have done just enough to win and keep their Playoff drive intact.

But against Ohio State next Saturday, the Wolverines need McCarthy to do his part. His ability to be a legitimate dual threat is the single biggest advantage Michigan has over Ohio State.

In the past 2 games without Jim Harbaugh’s game-day influence, McCarthy is 19-for-31 for 201 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT. His longest completion has been 26 yards.

I’m well aware of how Michigan mauled Ohio State in the trenches last year in Columbus. So is Ohio State. There is zero chance that happens again.

Besides, last year’s ground-and-pound game plan was as much about keeping the ball out of CJ Stroud’s hands as it was busting the middle of OSU’s defense. The Wolverines ran for 252 yards and 3 TDs. But here’s the key: McCarthy arguably played his best game, too, throwing for 263 yards and 3 TDs. He had 4 completions for 30+ yards, including TD passes of 69 and 75 yards to Cornelius Johnson. His arm kept OSU’s back 7 honest and helped create running lanes that the Wolverines exploited late.

Saturday’s showdown is win or go home. Playoff or bust. The loser has absolutely no Playoff case.

Michigan has the better QB. It’s time they let him play like it, though.

6. Cupcake 1.85M, Auburn 0

This is probably a really, really, really bad time to remind folks what Bo Nix is up to.

But that’s what I’m here for.

Nix, a Heisman favorite, threw for 404 yards and a career-high 6 TDs Saturday to lead Oregon’s continued Playoff push.

5. Ranking the Power 5 title game in terms of Playoff impact

1. SEC: It’s Bama vs. Georgia. Winner goes. Loser goes home, preferably without spending the postgame interview time campaigning for a Playoff bid it didn’t earn.

2. Pac-12: If it’s an Oregon vs. Washington rematch, the winner will make the Playoff. If Oregon wins the rematch and doesn’t go as a 12-1 conference champ with 4 wins over ranked teams, it will supplant the TCU snub in 2014 as the biggest hose job in Playoff history.

3. Big 12: As mentioned, no team stands to benefit more from Travis’ injury than Texas. The Longhorns appeared locked out, but Travis’ injury all but eliminates the ACC.

Get ready for the noise, though. The final spot could come down to Texas vs. OSU/Michigan loser vs. SEC title game loser. Imagine explaining to a Longhorns fan how you can have the best win of the college season, win your league and not make the Playoff.

4. ACC: FSU has to beat Louisville and finish 13-0 to go, but given that FSU was hanging onto the No. 4 spot with Travis, it’s possible that the Noles could become the first undefeated Power 5 team not to make the Playoff. Is that fair? Hardly. But this won’t be the same team that whipped LSU.

5. Big Ten: There’s absolutely no way Iowa is beating Michigan or Ohio State. Which makes their Week 13 showdown the de facto B1G title game/Playoff play-in game.

4. The 4 Playoff teams are …

1. Georgia, 2. Michigan, 3. Oregon, 4. Alabama

Do I think this will be the final grouping? No. I think 12-1 Texas with a Big 12 title moves ahead of the SEC title game loser, even if that’s 12-1 Georgia.

Some years, I have lobbied for 2 teams from the same league to make the Playoff. Not this year. In order for that to happen, there has to be that 1 clear-cut, no-doubt No. 1 dominant team and another very, very close behind.

That no-doubt No. 1 team doesn’t exist this year.

This year, we have 7 teams that could beat — or lose to — the other 6 on any given week. Therefore, you can’t reward one conference with 2 teams at the expense of 2 other leagues.

Bottom line? You better win your conference championship.

My eventual 4 will do exactly that.

3. Don’t blame me, Georgia … blame your AD

This will-or-else Playoff path was set in cement the moment Georgia decided to not replace Oklahoma with another name-brand, Power 5 contender.

The road they took had no shoulder to pull off, change the tire, and go. Everything had to go right. Which meant, 13-0, not 12-1 with a loss in the SEC title game.

If the Dawgs do, indeed, fall in the SEC title game and fall short in the Dec. 3 Playoff rankings, they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves. Even if they are good enough to win it all.

They — and they alone — chose to keep this soft schedule. Pick the source, it doesn’t matter. They all agree Georgia’s strength of schedule is in the bottom half of the country. It’s worse than any of the contenders, considerably worse than several. ESPN ranks Georgia’s SOS at No. 78. (It has Michigan at No. 65, FSU at No. 55, Oregon at 53, Washington at 43, Ohio State at 39, Alabama at 19.)

I’ve heard the excuses. Money solves every possible reason Georgia didn’t do this, didn’t do that, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do that.

Georgia has more than enough cash and had more than enough time to find a respectable Power 5 dance partner, buy out one of that team’s cupcake games and improve its laughable nonconference schedule. Or, they simply could have decided to keep the game at Oklahoma this year as a 1-off, embracing every coach’s “anywhere, any time” mindset.

If they kept that Oklahoma game, and beat OU, which they would have, we’re not having this conversation. The Dawgs would be safely at No. 1, knowing their Playoff spot is secure no matter what happens in Atlanta.

Instead, if they lose the SEC title game, the Dawgs basically want the committee to base their Playoff worthiness on beating Mizzou. At home. By 9 points.

Come on, man.

Georgia is in the exact same position as Michigan. Win, you’re in. Lose? Schedule better.

The SEC champion is going to the Playoff. But only the SEC champion.

2. The shine is all the way off Lincoln Riley

Nobody in college football history has had and wasted a 7-year run of elite QBs quite like Lincoln Riley.

Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray won the Heisman in 2017 and 2018 — Riley’s first 2 years as a head coach.

Jalen Hurts finished 2nd in 2019.

Spencer Rattler was all the rage in 2020, billed as a future No. 1 overall pick.

Caleb Williams was even more than that in 2021. He of course followed Riley to USC in 2022 — and won the Heisman.

Mayfield, Murray and Hurts got Oklahoma to the Playoff, but couldn’t win a game.

As a college QB, Williams might better than all of them — but he has even less to show for it.

The sideshow surrounding Saturday’s Hollywood Bowl between USC and UCLA was whether the Bruins would fire Chip Kelly.

The Bruins promptly whipped the Trojans 38-20 … calling into question everything Riley is doing at USC.

Riley’s crew finished the regular season 7-5, losers of 3 straight and 5-of-6. They allowed at least 34 points to each of their past 8 opponents.

Next year, there is no Williams.

How much longer until there is no Riley?

1. ‘Merica’s team …

It’s a shame this is fake because otherwise, it’s perfect.